Fracking may be risk to future generations says Church

Natural gas extraction “is increasingly presenting people with a choice between economic gain and a healthy environment”, the Anglican diocese of Blackburn said.

Headlined Fracking – opportunity or challenge?, the document released on its website sets out for parishioners the arguments over the controversial practice in an area that has already been the site of test drilling.

It claims that talk of the money to be made “has lured landowners to sign or contemplate signing leases to drill on their land”.

“A relatively new technique 
to extract natural gas from previously unreachable depths is prompting a rush to drill, despite virtually no history as to its environmental impact,” the document says.

“Any consideration of the pros & cons of an issue like ‘fracking’ has to be viewed in the context of global climate change, which itself cannot be ignored by Christians, as it raises questions of justice, fairness, provision, stewardship and love for God, His Creation and His Creatures, including our global human neighbours.”

It adds: “The time we spend thinking, praying and acting now to protect our drinking water,and the rest of God’s glorious Creation cannot compare with the time succeeding generations could potentially spend trying to make good what will likely happen if we in the Church remain uninformed and silent.”

Lancashire has been identified as one of the areas of Britain with most potential for hydraulic fracturing, which involves using water and chemicals to break up rocks deep underground.

A recent report suggested there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas present.

The UK’s first fracking was undertaken by Cuadrilla in west Lancashire but was suspended after two minor tremors in the Blackpool area, which is part of the diocese.

Recent test drilling in Balcombe, West Sussex, was met with protests by local people and environmentalists.